As a coffee farmer, Daniel's interest in the sensory evaluation of coffee was once a rarity. The custom at Hacienda Esmeralda has always been to pick coffee berries as they ripened, plot by plot, but all the coffee from Jaramillo was mixed. It was only in 2002 that Daniel became aware that it was the few plants (3%) on the farm of this special varietal, which elevated the overall fresh acidity of the whole lot. Daniel began to selectively pick and separate the berries that he considered to be the particular varietal creating this unique aroma and flavour. This is where the new era begins.

Boquete is a very special place in this respect: there is good camaraderie and professional solidarity between clever and ambitious coffee farmers in one place. From this fertile ground sprung the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP), and the Best of Panama (BoP), first held in 1996 – three years before the CoE. Many coffee farmers here know their coffee well. They are seasoned roasters and skilled cuppers. Daniel has been a part of this community since its inception. (In 2012, the BoP made the radical – and absolutely natural – intervention to separate Geisha coffee in a separate category of the competition. This made BoP the first auction program to do so, but we are going to see more of it ahead!)